Red Brokk
]] Scion of the Gunnarsson Clan, '''Red Brokk' is well known as a nasty old battlehammer of a Dwarf with little love for anything other than the wondrous seagoing engines for which he is famed. His ingenuity and ability in the field of naval warfare has been proven time and again. But a recent run-in with his former colleague and arch-rival, Tordrek Hackheart, saw his Ironclad destroyed by the Black Kraken. Now at the helm of his Grudgebreaker-class battleship, Gunnarsson has returned to the ocean with Jaego Roth, the manling captain that rescued him, to hunt down the Chaos Dwarf and settle his grudge. History The Gunnarssons of Barak Varr have always been famous for two qualities above all else - genius and foul temper. Brokk Gunnarsson, known to the Pirate Lords of Sartosa as "Red Brokk" because of his shocking red hair and warlike nature, has both of these qualities in abundance. Well over three hundred years of age, Red Brokk spent most of his early life toiling in the vast arched coves of the thriving Dwarf seahold Barak Varr. The mechanics of steam-based seafaring have been his passion for the last two centuries. Red Brokk is well known (and well feared) among apprentice engineers and rival pirates alike as a nasty old battlehammer of a Dwarf with little love for anything save gold, blindingly strong ale and, above all else, the wondrous seagoing war engines that have made the seahold of Barak Varr a naval power in its own right. Barak Varr is a Dwarf fortress completely unlike others of its kind, for it is more of a cityport than mountain fastness. It extends throughout the great white cliffs that lie to the south of the Border Princes, and its formidable navy forms a kind of unofficial bulwark against invasions that would otherwise cut deep into the belly of Karl Franz's manling Empire. Dwarfs do not naturally take to the seas; They prefer things of permanence over the fickle and unpredictable tides of the ocean. However, during the War of the Beard, when the Elf and Dwarf races waged war against one another, the Elves of Ulthuan proved their dominance in no uncertain terms - their lightning-fast invasion fleets left many thousands of dead Dwarfs in their wake. The Dwarfs have always maintained that anything the Elves can do, they can do better; and so it was not too long before Red Brokk Gunnarsson's forefathers had ventured out into the wide ocean. They did so not upon flimsy vessels of wood and linen, though, for Dwarfs put no stock in such inferior materials. Instead they tamed the waves in great silversteel behemoths powered by complex steam engines and ancestor turbines. As the craft of shipbuilding was perfected, Barak Varr became a hive of industrial activity. The Engineer's Guild sent thousands of aspiring artisans to Barak Varr's dockyards in order to ensure each new species of warship was a technological marvel. The seaport swelled year after year until its fleet boasted several hundred ironclads, Nautilus submersibles and even Grudgebreaker-class battleships, the largest of which were capable of single-handedly tearing down a city's walls. These enormous engines of battle proved able to survive full broadsides from Imperial war galleon and, provided their crews took cover, even shrug off the deadly bolt thrower volleys beloved by the High Elf Navy without sustaining more than a few casualties. Furthermore, the steam warships of the Dwarfs could travel at a rate of knots even when the seas were becalmed, and each was so rugged and reliable that they were capable of riding out the fiercest storms. Content that they had proved their mastery over the oceans and given the High Elves of Ulthuan a bloody nose into the bargain, the Dwarfs' fixation with matters of the sea ebbed away, and they retreated once more into their mines and underground palaces. Barak Varr remains the exception to this day. Red Brokk Gunnarsson is but one of the large brotherhood of Master Engineers who have taken up permanent residence in the seahold, devoting their entire lives to the conquest of the ocean. Red Brokk is reckoned the most gifted of their number, for it was he that created the twelve-enginned seigebulker, the gyrostabilized seacannon, and the many-legged bathyscaphe Chasm Crawler. His ingenuity and ability in the field of naval warfare has been proven time and time again; the name Gunnarsson carries serious weight even amongst the lords of Sartosa. Just as well, for as Geheimnisnacht drew closer, the fate of the Dwarf Master Engineer and the pirate Roth became inextricably linked. Red Brokk's previous ironclad, Grungni's Forge, was pitilessly crushed by the submersible kraken-craft of his nemesis, the rogue Dwarf Engineer Tordrek Hackhart. With Captain Roth's help, Gunnarsson has returned to the ocean waves in a warship even larger and more armoured than Grungni's Forge - a battleship designed for the hunt and for the violence at hunt's end. Source * : White Dwarf Issue 382 ** : pg. 24 * : Dreadfleet es:Brokk el Rojo Category:Dreadfleet Category:Dwarf Characters Category:Dwarf Navy Category:B Category:G Category:R Category:Barak Varr Category:Engineers Guild